Frazz by Jef Mallett for March 21, 2012

“Runner Rovers,” that’s good!

In Louisiana a fairly recent law dictates how your suppose to approach a bike rider and pass one on the bike. A child lost its life which lead to this law.

I’m about ready to smack some teacher in Northern Michigan..they are teaching children to ride AGAINST traffic in direct violation of the law.

in Midland, MI they have given the whole lane on many of the one ways to bicycles.

I’ve been right where Frazz is here in Northern Virginia. Riding sensibly as far right as I can, and having HUGE SUVs tailgating me and honking their horns. And if I stop to let them pass, they swear at me.

If you are holding someone up, you are biking wrong.

As long as bicyclists obey the same “rules of the road” that everyone else must obey, that’s fine. Just last night, I had a green light and was making a left when a bicyclist blew through his red, and I had to swerve to miss him. When I opened the window to yell he was wrong, he completely ignored me. The laws I must obey apply to bike riders too. Everyone should remember that.

Some cyclists obey the laws but I too ride and I can attest many ignore the rules if THEY think they are being safe. Many think stopping is not an option. I once road with a church group who regularly rode through red lights and laughed about it. Go figure.

I think the strip isn’t as focused on SUVs in general, as it is on the fact that the driver is Stephan Pastis. Frazz and Pearls have had an occasional, subtle back-and-forth for at least a couple of years, now (as have other strips and Pearls).

IRONY ALERT:

“I drive a hideously expensive and pretentious SUV, which was originally designed to be an OFF-Road vehicle. Therefore, I own the road, and everyone else must bow to my will, even though my vehicle doesn’t really belong here either.”

Yes, I do agree – bicyclists should obey the traffic laws, because they are extremely vulnerable to mishap. Mishap? All right, call it what it is – crashing, maiming, and potentially dying.

Also, I definitely agree with DutchUncle – the driver who should have known better—killed a child.

Had a student who’;d moved from CA, she was still paying an $800 fine for cycling through a STOP sign. How it should be, but, WOW, that’s expensive. Never had problems until I moved to MO. Stupid Rednecks…………… In WY you can ride the interstate.

Lots of interesting comments, but nobody seems to have noticed that they are on a bike trail in a park where no SUV should ever be.

In college, I didn’t have a car and I just rode my bike for four years. I generally found motorists to be rude to me. Of course, as a motorist today, I’m considerate of cyclists, but they still sometimes stress me out a little.

When I grew up they taught us to walk and ride against the flow of traffic but them bikes didn’t have the rights of a vehicle. Wish bicyclists would obey those rules rather than be a vehicle one moment and then not the next moment.

@Becky and the others advocating cycling TOWARDS traffic, the reason that is a bad idea is that if the car cannot change lanes to pass safely, they cannot slow down enough to not pass you. This would guarantee a too close passing of car and bicycle, not a good outcome for driver or rider. On the other hand if you are traveling in the same direction, the car can at least slow down to your speed until it is safe to pass.

We get cussed at and buzzed quite often by angry rednecks. The problem isn’t that we are not obeying the law, it’s that the law is on our side. Two abrest is LEGAL, and necessary when you have groups as large as ours.

Even if we were single file, it is still illegal to pass without at least half a lane of clearance, which means as long as there is oncoming traffic, motorists have to wait, just like if you get behind farm equipment. It’s that waiting for 30 or 40 seconds for the opposite lane to clear out that seems to make some motorists go appoplectic.

Hey, guys – That’s a BIKE trail! Did you miss the point?

yeah, then you die, having the right-of way.

As a cyclist and a CanBike instructor, I find many (not all) motorist become lackadaisical about the application of the rules of the road. For example they do not come to full stops at 4-way stops, when waiting to complete a left hand turn they will cross over the centre line into the opposing traffic lane, etc. This is not to say that I do not see some cyclists doing stupid things as well – just yesterday I saw a cyclist riding against traffic on a one-way street. All road users need to follow the rules of the road, but at the same time motorists need to respect a cyclists right to use the roadway.

I would like to point out in the cartoon above Frazz and his friend are not impeding the motorist; there is a passing lane on the left which the motorist could use to safely pass them, just like a motorist would do to pass another motorist. Unfortunately, it has been my impression that many motorists feel that being required to use their driving skills to safely change lanes to pass a cyclist, that the cyclist is “impeding” motorist. As well, they are riding in the daytime so lights an reflectors a not required, and many bike lights with the advent of LEDs are actually quite small and would possibly be difficult to respresent in a drawing of the cartoon’s scale.

With regards to racing cyclists using “bike paths” a couple of questions come to mind. Is the “bike path” actually a bike path or a multi-use path? What’s the difference? A bike path is used by cyclists only. A multi-use path is used by pedestrians, cyclists, inline skaters, skaterboarders, people walking their dogs on and off leash, children on bikes, etc. The speed at which on can safely travel on a bike path (only bikes ) vs multi-use (max. is usually 15 km / hour) is very different. Most racers are training at well above 15 km/hour – ie in the 30 to 40 km / hour range depending on the type of training being done. Most racing cyclist I know who are doing training rides are going out for long distances on country roads where traffic is not as heavy, the air is fresher, and there are fewer stoplights.

Finally, much of motorists’ response to cyclists is cultural attitude (and attiutdes can be changed) – I say this because, when I was in Quebec for several weeks a few years back, when cycling on rural highways, the motorists always stayed back behind cyclists, and then crossed over to the other lane to pass when safe to do so. They did not honk their honks or yell at us. But this makes sense as cycling is a big sport in Quebec and hugely supported by the people there.

Be safe on the road everyone; if we drive and ride like everyone else on the road is one of our loved ones, maybe our roads will be a safer place to be.

I got a ticket for speeding I doing 43 in a 25 zone. I was riding a 15 speed racing bike and going down hill what the cop did not know the we(4 of us we all got tickets) were going alot faster earler

I don’t like the trend towards bike riders’ rights because it instills a false sense of security. I rode my 10 speed (and motorcycle) like I was invisible – as is usually the case with many drivers. As in the old right of way slogan, you can be right – dead right.

I tried that but the surgeon said I couldn’t get a penis extension with a sunroof, satellite radio and cup holders.

I’d rather bicyclists ride on the shoulder of the highway where it is paved, then on the country roads where there isn’t really a shoulder. (No bike paths out here in the country.) I don’t know how many times I’ve been driving at the speed limit (55mph) to come over a hill and have to slam on the brakes to keep from hitting a bicyclist, because there is on-coming traffic so I can’t pass them. It isn’t that I’m mad at them, as much as I think they’re suicidal and I’d get the blame if I couldn’t stop in time. At least with the farm tractors, etc., they are tall enough to be able to see them sooner when coming over a hill, and if I hit them, there is less chance of a fatality.

Sounds like one of those drivers yelling “GET ON THE SIDEWALK!” when there isn’t one

Frazz, don’t you know you’re not supposed to ride your bike as transportation? That’s not the AMERICAN way—you’re supposed to strap it to the back of your Runner Rover, haul it to a special-purpose “bike path” and be cussed out by all the overweight ladies in spandex waddling four abreast and gabbing for “exercise”!

@DutchUncle You said he killed a child. Maybe the child did something to cause him to lose his life. The driver may have done everything right. Sometimes children and others run through stop signs and cross the streets in the wrong places.

I wonder if things have changed any in CA where the highway patrol is the bike rider’s worst enemy.

Hmm. I thought they were riding on a bike/pedestrian trail. Notice the quick change in elevation and the narrowness of the lanes. I think it’s the SUV that doesn’t belong on that “road”.

The driver appears to be on a bike path.The driver also appears to be color blind.A white line means that traffic on both sides of the line is moving in the same direction. A yellow line means that traffic on the other side of the line is moving in the opposite direction. Thirty years ago I was driving my Grand Mother from The Soo to Petosky for medical tests. we were driving along the freeway when a man from OHIO driving a brown Chevrolet Caprice station wagon with his wife, son, and daughter drove the wrong way for at least 5 miles and forced us off the road. He did not even stop and probably still thinks that we were idiots.

Umm…Frazz & friend are riding two across, which is illegal, and (unless they are going the speed limit) impeding faster traffic, which is illegal, at least in California. Does he also blow through stop signs and red lights, make left turns in front of oncoming traffic, and slide on on the right in a blind spot to make a turn without signaling or stopping at the sign?

I love Frazz, but in my experience, most of the time the cyclists are at fault and are fortunate that drivers are looking out for them.

When I rode a bike I was always aware what was around me and played nice but some people are jerks.That’s when I’d play games to piss them off.

According to http://bicycling.com/blogs/roadrights/2010/04/15/two-by-two/, it is perfectly legal to ride two across (which I do not think Frazz is doing, BTW) in CA, and in most states (except NB, HI and MT) I’m always amazed how upset people get having to slow for 10-15 seconds when there is a bike in front of them. It’s not too bad in San Diego – I bike commute and have only been harassed four times by drivers in the past 8-10 years.

I think Frazz and friend are actually in the right. They are biking with traffic, on the shoulder (Jef actually put a different color marking a possible shoulder) and are riding one behind the other. This time, the SUV is in the wrong – I am guessing the irony of the strip today is that the SUV thinks it owns the road. (*Noted, not an interstate!) lol

Any driver who behaves like that deserves to have their license revoked and be forced to walk everywhere for the rest of their life.